


and he’s off!

by Coveffinder



Category: IT (1990), IT (2017), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Athlete Eddie Kaspbrak, Come on, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Explicit Language, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Good Parent Maggie Tozier, Good Parents Maggie & Wentworth Tozier, Hurt/Comfort, I just love supportive toziers, Light Angst, M/M, Mentions of neglect, Mild Blood, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mild Sexual Content, Reddie Centric, Richie and his friends deserve the best, Sonia Kaspbrak's A+ Parenting, but ONE DAY, mentions of abuse, might end up with just a whole series of supportive toziers, the hosptial smut will happen, there's only one line abt it in this but like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-21
Packaged: 2019-10-14 03:56:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17501090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coveffinder/pseuds/Coveffinder
Summary: Eddie Kaspbrak gets hurt running track without permission, which means he has to deal with Sonia’s wrath.But Sonia Kaspbrak isn’t that scary when he has the Loser’s Club- and Richie Tozier- on his side.[Modern AU, Oneshot, mild hurt/comfort, Reddie centric]





	and he’s off!

The staff and students of Derry High colletively groaned in horror when Eddie Kaspbrak took one hell of a spill during the senior boys’ 100m hurdles.

In theory, Eddie wasn’t supposed to be competing. His mother had called the school at the beginning of his freshman year and informed them her son had asthma, allergies, fragile joints, and what she suspected was hemophilia. In practice however, Eddie was one of their best competitors. State-wide he was among the top in sprinting events, and he probably could have gone for a scholarship in the right situation. His mother was unwilling to consider her son was, in fact, perfectly healthy, and adamantly refused his participation in bigger meets. Eddie didn’t mind too much, he just liked to run, and so he did. He told his mother he had joined chess club (a club which Derry High did not, in fact have) and had to stay after school on tuesdays and thursdays. The school quietly allowed him to practice with the track team, and eventually sent him to a Maine championship where he came third overall in the 200m sophomore boys race. 

“He could be up to second- hell, even best in state by next year if he keeps working at it.” The coach had argued with the principal while she chewed him out for “essentially kidnapping a student”. 

And he had ended up placing second the next year, which the Loser’s Club nearly threw a parade about. Well, they sort of did, peeling down Maine street in Richie’s car making a pretty impressive scene. Sonia Kaspbrak had laid into Eddie about it when he got home, but she couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. And she was none the wiser. 

Except now, he was lying rolled over on the track, clutching his right hand which pulsed with a mind-numbing agony. He had broken his arm before, and he knew exactly what had happened.

He was just happy it was still mostly attached to his body. He had tried to catch himself on it after he tripped over the hurdle, and it got caught under his entire weight.

“Eddie! Shit man, are you okay?” There was a thunder of footsteps as people started to crowd. The coach and another teacher were coming running, but most of the Loser’s Club beat them there. 

Eddie squinted against the warm September sun, seeing a halo of fiery blood-red hair that was starting to go wild in the humidity. Big Bill, the first one there as always. 

“I’m okay. Just hurt my wrist- I think.” He groaned. There were more people overtop of him then, Ben and Richie, he could hear Stan too. 

He closed his eyes for a few long moments, trying to will the pain away.

“Definitely looks broken, we’ll have to take him to the hospital.” It was the coach now, he sounded regretful.

“Great, I’m sure his mother will be thrilled.” Another teacher sighed. “Denbrough, run in and have the secretary call 911.” 

“Are you sure?” The coach asked skeptically. He would be okay to walk in a few seconds. 

“If we don’t, his mom will be throwing an even bigger bird about it.”

“She’s right.” Eddie admitted, a little forlorn. “Mom’s called an ambulance for less. I’m really sorry about all this.” 

“Relax, Kaspbrak, no one’s blaming you. Denbrough, off you go.” 

There was the thud of shoes on the track and then the grass as Bill tore off towards the school. 

“Beverly, help him to the parking lot and get him sat down.”

“I’m going too!” A deep but nasal voice protested, causing Eddie to finally open his eyes again to see Richie Tozier towering over him as well.

“You fought tooth and nail to get to announce these meets, and now you’re going to announce at them.” The other teacher scolded. 

“Then I’m announcing my retirement!” 

“Mister Tozier...” She warned.

“It’s okay, Miss Bellevue. I can take over for a few minutes while the ambulance gets here.” Ben offered.

She sniffed in protest, turning back towards the coach who shrugged. “Fine, but you’re not riding in the ambulance with him. For your own sake when Mrs. Kaspbrak finds out about all this.”

Beverly and Richie helped him to his feet, and the bleachers gave a cheer. There was still a murmur of gossip through the crowd however, as almost everyone was well aware of Sonia’s outbursts. The principal was storming her way out of the front doors now. They met them at the front steps of the school.

“Coach Hagarty, I hope you have a good lawyer.” She muttered gravely. He shrugged casually, watching the road for the ambulance. 

“What’s she going to do? Sue me? He’s 17, Nora. The police aren’t going to do shit about it. He was willingly participating in a school sport, and he’ll be fine.” The principal huffed and turned to go back into the school.

“It’s your ass on the line, Don.” She warned, before leaving to make the most stressful phone call of the school year. 

“Coach Hagarty?” Eddie asked meekly from the step he was sitting on a few rows down. He looked fine now, a little pale maybe. Beverly Marsh was dabbing wet tissue into where he skinned along his other arm, and Richie Tozier was pressing exaggerated kisses around a few other scrapes with loud “mwuah”s. “It’s just my wrist, am I still good to practice for the state meet?” 

The coach could see worry really lining his features now, and he decided he wasn’t worried if Sonia Kaspbrak called the goddamn Feds on him.

“Take a few weeks off, Kaspbrak, and then we’ll start up with flat sprints again. You’re not doing hurdles again until the cast comes off, though.”

Eddie’s warm brown eyes lit up again, and he smiled despite the pain. “Thank you, Coach.”

“Just try your best to keep your mom off my ass. I’ll go get your things.” He muttered, retreating into the school. 

“My big- handsome- jock- boyfriend-“ Richie cooed in a high pitched voice between pecks. Eddie used his good hand to push him away, and he stuck his tongue out to lick instead which left Eddie giggling before accidentally trying to move his other hand. He hissed in pain and Richie immediately relented, Beverly rolled her eyes in his direction.

“You’re gonna be a fucking swizzle stick by the time you’re done college at this rate, Eddie.” She sighed. There was still a scar on the arm she was tending to from his broken arm back when they were eleven. 

Down the road the blare of sirens slowly grew louder, and Eddie awkwardly tried to get to his feet. They hoisted him up to limp to the sidewalk, and Richie rubbed his shoulder and gave him a final kiss on the cheek.

“I’ll come see you later, hang in there.” Richie whispered. The coach returned with his backpack and a sports drink tucked into the side. 

“The two of you should be heading back to the field now.” He turned to Richie and Beverly. Bev gave Eddie a lopsided hug before the two of them walked away together, discussing something as they went. Eddie had an idea on what it was about. They knew Sonia was annoying at best, downright malicious at worst, and they were probably formulating an Eddie escape plan. 

“Have you called my mom?” He asked nervously. The coach looked a little reproachful. 

“Yeah, we had to. I think she’s still on the phone though, so you’ll have a little time before she’s at the hospital.” 

Eddie sighed, staring down at the sidewalk as the ambulance turned into the lane and shut the sirens off. Students were starting to swarm the fence of the field now. 

“You know, Kaspbrak, you’re really one hell of an athlete to keep doing this despite the shit you’ve gotta deal with, and you should be proud of that.” The coach sounded more serious than Eddie had heard him be in a long time. “Not just from your mom, but I know some of the other guys don’t treat you and your friends great. That sort of thing happened to me too, and you should know what while a few of them might just be shitty? Most of the school probably admires you guys quite a bit.” 

Eddie kept looking down at the pavement, but offered a small smile. “Thanks, coach.”

The ambulance had rolled to a stop now in front of them. The lights flared far too bright in the afternoon sun.

“And don’t let your mom talk you out of state. She can’t stop you, Eddie.”

“I know. I won’t.”

—

Eddie was reclining in one of the sunnier, less high-tech rooms of the Derry home hospital a few hours later. He had a pretty stable fracture in his wrist, and he would probably have his new cast off in a month. The doctors said he was fine to go home, but his mother had thrown a fit to have him stay overnight to be monitored for what she called “massive internal hand bleeding”. 

Well, he wasn’t sure if it had been a fit, that was just why he heard from the nurse (whom he was already well acquainted with). He hadn’t let his mother in to get his cast done.

And that, was delicious. He had to smother a smile building on his lips. The nurse said they would be doing their best to keep her out of the room as long as they could, hopefully convince her to go home for the night. The last thing they needed was the infamous Mrs. Kaspbrak hogging a double room for one patient, and running the poor nurses in circles for no reason. 

He could already her her going on about him not letting her in while he got his cast.

Oh, he actually could already hear her. 

“Eddie? Eddie is that you? Oh Eddie!” She cried, thudding into the room. Her footsteps sounded like Bill’s on the track beside his head, except she wasn’t running and she was still meters away. 

“Hey Mom.” He replied casually, spinning the straw in his acidic hospital-tin of apple juice. 

“Oh my god. You just look awful. I have no idea what you were thinking, I mean just look at what happens when you do things that are so dangerous. You’re far too short to be jumping over hurdles- let alone running with your lungs. It’s goldenrod season Eddie! You could have died!” She was on the verge of tears now, and Eddie tried not to look bored.

“Okay, Mom.” 

“No, I mean what were they thinking allowing a boy with so many conditions into such a dangerous position. Eddie I don’t even know if I want you going back to school.”

“Okay, Mom.” 

“How are-“ 

“I’m fine.” He barked. His lidded eyes took her off guard- they seemed disdainful. Her own son. His lip twitched, and she thought it must have been in pain, because otherwise I was the beginning of a… a sneer. 

“Eddie, they shouldn’t have let-“ she started softly before he cut her off.

“They didn’t let me do anything.” He countered. She hated this. He still had that mean little glare. Maybe not even little. Maybe just the glare of a tired man. Except Eddie wasn’t a man! He was only seventeen! He still had nearly eight months until he was eighteen! He was nowhere near a… man. He still didn’t raise his voice though. She hated that, because when he raised his voice she could call it a tantrum. Just a tantrum from her little boy. No reasoning behind it. 

“I’m a senior, and in a year I’ll be off to college. Living on my own, Mom. An adult. I’m old enough to play sports when I want to, and I’m not going to sit around because you think I’ll get hurt.” 

Sonia was really fuming now.

“Edward Kaspbrak.”

“Yes.”

“Don’t SPEAK to me in that tone.”

“I’m not being terribly disrespectful, Mother.” Her thick eyelid was really twitching now.

“Mother?” 

“Yeah, Mother.”

She had always been Eddie’s Mommy. That’s how he greeted her too, wasn’t it. “Mom”. Where was the familiarity. 

Her own son.

“If I’m going to be undermined, then I suppose I should just leave. I’ll be making calls to the board about how your school is being ran…” She was bluffing, of course. She had already gotten in trouble with the school board back six years ago when those assholes called CPS on her for Eddie becoming “malnourished”. It wasn’t her fault he was a sickly child! She fed him as much a young boy should have needed, especially for how small he was. Besides, she should have called CPS on that bitch Maggie Tozier for stuffing her kid full of genetically modified shit whenever he went to her whining that he was “hungry” and “dizzy” (whatever that meant, she knew nothing about Eddie’s health the way Sonia did). She did it with those ginger kids, the boy with the dead brother and the girl, too when they bullshitted her and said their parents “weren’t feeding them”. She was just meddling in other parents’ affairs. 

“... And I suppose I’ll be taking your cell phone so I can let you think your safety over in peace.” She snarled. His brown eyes flashed a sort of hatred, but he surprised her by fishing it out of his pocket and handing it over easily. 

“Whatever. Leave me alone.” He muttered. “Whatever” She thought to herself. That’s what this all was. Teenage rebellion, she tried to reason. She took it smugly, and then left, not feeling quite as victorious as she would have liked to. 

Eddie sat for a few more hours, eventually feeling pretty bored of the home renovation shows they were showing on loop on the television. He walked around a little, ate a pretty nasty hospital dinner, then stared at the ceiling. 

It was unfair.

There was a knock at the door, and he expected his mother to come thudding in, but instead the footsteps were familiar in a different way. 

“Eddie spaghetti, my little soldier all patched up!” Richie teased, padding in on his worn out sneakers and a massive hoodie that almost overtook his shorter shorts. He had a grease-stained McDonald’s bag and his backpack with him. 

Eddie peeled up immediately, grinning as Richie tossed him the bag. He tore into the hamburger like a stray dog, albeit awkwardly being down a hand. 

“How are you feeling, Spaghets?” Richie sat down at the end of his bed, fishing some books and a DS out. Eddie was surprised when he handed the DS over. 

“I’m guessing your mom took your phone, otherwise sorry for showing up.”

“Sorry for showing up?” Eddie asked

“Yeah” Richie smiled. “I told you we were coming, and you texted back ‘do not visit me I do not want to see any of you I do not like you’, so I said ‘sure thing Mrs. K’ and you said ‘who is this?’” Eddie threw his head back in exasperation. 

“I swear to god.” He muttered. “Are the others here?” 

Richie looked a little guilty at that. “We all came, but your mom told them not to let any visitors in, and it turns out that that is in her rights or whatever, so I snuck in and the rest of them are going to come back tomorrow to escort you out like a gay entourage.” He smiled. “A gauntorage.” 

Eddie felt a bit more heat simmer under the surface of the thought of his mom keeping him from his friends once again. 

“Please don’t tell me you brought homework.” Eddie groaned. Instead Richie pulled out a folded piece of cardstock. On it was a badly drawn stick figure eating shit, face down beside a hurdle with a cheerful rainbow in the background. It was drawn in sparkly gel pen and labelled “Get Well Soon Eddie!!!” With smiley faces peppered around the page. The entire sheet was also filled with signatures, the bigger ones from the Losers and the rest from the student body. There was a surprising amount, and someone had written “hope you feel better, but that shit was funny as fuck”. 

Eddie smiled broadly, setting it aside on his bedside table before Richie put a hand on his chest and pushed him down until he was lying flat.

“I was consulting WebMD about your condition, Mister Kaspbrak.” Richie purred in his best Serious Doctor voice. “And the experts say that the best way to relieve pain is relaxing the muscles.” His hand dropped, rubbing at Eddie’s lower stomach. 

“Hm, really? Shouldn’t you be trying to relax the muscles around the injury, Doctor Tozier?” He laughed. 

“Nah, right here does it for the whole body.” Richie smiled, dropping a little to hike his shirt up and press his mouth into his stomach.

“It’s a good thing I’m not hooked up to a heart monitor, or they’d probably be able to hear it picking up.” Eddie murmured, smiling a little as he stared up at the beige ceiling. 

“Hm, I might need to monitor you all night…” Richie sounded worried. “There’s some swelling down here…” 

Eddie tried to feign worry. “Really? What does WebMD say about that, Doctor?” 

“I’m pretty sure they usually just drain all the blood from it with a syringe.” Richie returned to his usual, playfully annoying voice.

“Ew! Richie!”

“Okay fine, fine, we’ll be unprofessional about it then.”


End file.
